Sustainability

Supplier stories

Our suppliers

We love our manufacturers, supply partners, growers and suppliers.

We strive to meet the expectations of our customers by sourcing stunning quality products and getting them into stores as quickly and efficiently as possible. We couldn’t do this without strong, collaborative andlong-term partnerships with our great suppliers.

Long-term agreements give our suppliers certainty and confidence to invest in innovation and growing their business. Here are some examples:

Sundrop Farms

Port Augusta, South Australia

With tomatoes consistently in the top 10 products our customers buy, we are proud to partner with Sundrop Farms so our customers can enjoy quality truss tomatoes all year round. Our 10-year partnership with Sundrop to supply fresh truss tomatoes to our supermarkets has facilitated the establishment of a state-of-the-art 20 hectare greenhouse facility at Port Augusta in South Australia.

The first-of-its-kind sustainable greenhouse project, where tomatoes are grown with solar power and desalinated seawater, has also created an estimated 300 jobs in construction and ongoing operations. To grow the tomatoes and power the greenhouses, Sundrop Farms harnesses solar energy from 23,000 mirrors and uses desalinated seawater from the Spencer Gulf.

Laurent

Victoria

We love bread and we know our customers do too. Our 10 year partnership with Laurent means we can offer our customers a new, innovative range not traditionally found at the supermarket.

A long-time stalwart in Melbourne’s baking scene, Laurent has developed a new artisan-style bread range for Coles using traditional recipes and authentic ingredients. This major milestone for Laurent, who opened his first bakery in South Yarra in 1993, means they can continue to innovate to bring new, exciting products to more Australians from their purpose-built facility in Victoria.

Made from a natural starter culture, which is over 25 years old and based on a traditional recipe, our bread is given extra time to rest and rise before stone baking. It is the time put into this 30 hour recipe that delivers our finest quality range - from Sourdough Pane di Casa with Toasted Sesame to the classic Sourdough Baguette.

Norco

Lismore, New South Wales and Labrador, Queensland

Coles has extended its contract with Norco to supply 60 million of Coles Brand milk annually to 2023.

Norco is a 121 year old co-operative owned by 220 dairy farmers in Queensland and New South Wakes. This extension has given Norco the confidence to invest in its existing plant, employ an additional 22 team members and sign 74 new dairy farmers to supply milk to the cooperative.

Norco also produces a huge range of our delicious and award winning Coles Brand ice creams including some of our customers’ absolute favourites like the peanut butter.

Simplot Australia

Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania

Simplot has been providing Coles with Aussie grown vegetables since 2006, we have now extended our 20 year partnership with Simplot to source more vegetables from farmers in Tasmania, New South Wales and Queensland until 2024.

Now we are delighted to be sourcing an extra 6 million kilograms of Australian grown frozen vegetables and potatoes each year from Simplot which were previously sourced from overseas.

The partnership benefits more than 240 growers in Tasmania, New South Wales and Queensland by providing long term security for these growers and their communities. It means growers will plant more crops and also benefits all those who contribute to the manufacturing of Aussie grown products including workers, truck drivers, regionally-based service providers and local communities.

Manbulloo Mangoes

Northern Territory

The taste of Australian summer is a whole lot sweeter since Manbulloo Mangoes committed to a long-term supply agreement which will see more than 50 million of their popular Kensington Pride mangoes sold through Coles until 2024.

Manbulloo is planting an additional 20,000 new mango trees at its farm in Katherine, NT. With support from the Coles Nurture Fund, to increase production of locally-grown mangoes to meet growing consumer demand.

Manbulloo has supplied mangoes to Coles for 10 years and began supplying directly to us in 2012. As Australia’s largest producer of Kensington Pride and R2E2 mangoes, Manbulloo has two farms at Townsville, one farm near Mareeba and one in Katherine with 350 people during peak season. More than 67,000 mango trees are currently in production.

TOP Pork

Victoria and South Australia

We know our customers are passionate about buying top quality, great tasting responsibly sourced pork. So in 2017, we started a unique 10 year deal with 12 farming families in Victoria and South Australia to help Coles supply more sow stall free pork to customers.

This partnership means Coles is sourcing directly from pig producers on the eastern seaboard to ensure customers can continue to purchase Australian-grown sow stall free pork for years to come.

This 10 year partnership gives Top Pork long-term security and the confidence to invest in facilities to increase production and improve productivity.